Millions of women around the world are turning to IVF to get pregnant, but a new study has found these babies are more likely to develop cancer later in life.

From 1991 until 2013, researchers from Israel’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev examined 242,187 newborn babies until they were 18, to see whether there was an association between fertility treatments and “malignancies.”

“Children conceived after fertility treatments are at an increased risk for pediatric neoplasms [abnormal tissue growth associated with cancer],” the study concluded.

Most of the babies involved in the study (98.3 percent) were conceived spontaneously while 1.1 percent were conceived via IVF and the other 0.7 percent were conceived via ovulation induction treatments.

“Incidence density rate for neoplasms was higher among children conceived either after IVF (1.5 in 1,000 chance) or ovulation induction treatments (1.0 in 1,000 chance), as compared with naturally conceived children (0.59 in 1,000 chance).”

That means it’s 2.5 times more likely that a child born through IVF will develop neoplasms, as opposed to a child conceived naturally.

The research was carried out in Israel, “where all fertility interventions, which include in vitro fertilization and ovulation induction, are fully covered by insurance, enabling citizens of all backgrounds access to these treatments,” said Professor Eyal Sheiner, who helped carry out the study.

“The research concludes that the association between IVF and total pediatric neoplasms and malignancies is significant,” Sheiner said.

“With increasing numbers of offspring conceived after fertility treatments, it is important to follow up on their health.”